Engine idling roughly after washing the engine
 

This may serve as great humour to some, but today I washed and polished my 98 Civic EX... Deciding since everytime I open the hood my hands get dirty I should wash there too.

I completely hosed down the engine and used a tiny bit of degreaser. Looks much better but now isn't idling well.

My limited experience suggests a cylinder isn't fireing, so I checked the distributer and wires. When I touched one of the rubber parts were the cable meets the engine and goes down to the spark plug I head a couple loud clicks. It appears dry now and it's still not idling well, plus the friendly check engine light is flashing on and off. Obviously I'm not driving it now.

Any ideas or suggestions? (other than of couse don't wash your engine if you don't know what you're doing)

thanks

I had done a search but it didn't show me the archives - I'll check what the CEL code is.

take apart your dist cap and dry it out

being wet inside doesnt help it to run smooth